Quick question

So it's my wifey's birthday next week, and she just told me last night that she didn't want me to get her anything. What should i do?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8hulZ-6Oh0

The perfect place for the emergent church

Yesterday was Rob Bell's farewell service at Mars Hill in Western MI. I thought it was fitting, since he has been one of the poster-children of the emergent movement, to reflect on what we may have learned from him and others like him. I really appreciate the idea of the emergent movement as an entity that is no more, but a movement we can reflect back on and learn from.

Assuming that the downfall of Emergent Village, the slide of Mars Hill and the publishing of A New Kind of Christianity and Love Wins have sounded the death knell for the emergent movement, it is appropriate for us to start this "conversation." Inside joke.

I think its funny that the emergent movement has left us with more answers than questions, and the conclusion is more telling than the journey. This movement may well have been the most influential piece of church history over the last 500 years. I'm comfortable with that. I want to hear your thoughts on this, but here are just a few things that i am sure will go down in the history books as aspects of living the Christian faith which the emergent movement has helped us see, both for better and for worse:

- There is less of a gap between orthodoxy and orthopraxy than we think. Faith and action are almost inseperable.

- We learned how to engage postmodernism as a church (whatever your definition of postmodernism is).

- People are not actually looking to be entertained at a worship service.

-People seek Truth (even today) and don't need it sugar coated. Answers to questions are still important.

- There are certain aspects of the gospel, God's Kingdom, and soteriology that have been given too little attention for the past 500 years (call me a heretic).

-The visible, militant church must be "ever-reforming." Not perfect, not static, not finished. Always learning from our past and our present, we must stay open to new possibilities and potential.

What do you think?

That is all.

Men?

I was recently reading a few articles on biblical manhood and thinking about some recent events in my ministry context. To make a long story short, it often feels like men are generally labelled as abrasive and lack care and understanding. I don't want to get into a Wild at Heart debate, but i would like to hear your thoughts on masculinity in ministry:

How did God make men in particular suited for ministry and leadership?

What aspects of manliness can be "redeemed" and what aspects must be subdued?

What does manly ministry look like?

That should give us some good food for thought.

Je-WHO?-vah

Today I had two sweet little old ladies come to my door toting New World Translations of the Holy Scriptures. I was working in my basement when my son came down and informed me that we had "friends" upstairs sharing the gospel with mommy. Imagine my excitement.

So I came upstairs and introduced myself. When I asked them who they were with they proudly announced that were Jehovah's Witnesses.

"Really" I said. "You know your leaders predicted the end of the world 14 times incorrectly, right?"
Cute Little Old Ladies: "That is not true - they never gave a precise date!"
Me: "Your translation is a terrible knock-off of the 1611 King James Bible. Did you know the authors didn't know Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic?"
Cute Little Old Ladies: "According to Jeopardy, the New World Translation IS the most accurate translation in the world."
Amber: "Huh, well if it was an answer on Jeopardy..."
Me: "Ladies, we worship Jesus here - that's the fundamental difference between us."
Cute Little Old Ladies: "Colossians says that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. Isn't that interesting?"
Me: "Yeah, almost as interesting as the next verse which says that by him all things were created in heaven AND on earth. Oh, and that ALL things were created through him and for him."
Cute Little Old Ladies: "Well, we best be going now..."
Me: "So we're clear, what you believe is a deception. You are deceived and you are deceivers. You believe in a works based righteousness and unless you repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness, annihilation will be the least of your worries."

***SLAM***

So I've had a fairly robust history with Jehovah's Witnesses, and as you can see from the footnotes of my conversation above, I'm not exactly extending the olive branch when they show up. Here's why:

II John vs. 9-11 say "Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works."

Now, these verses refer to false teachers that hold to a view of eschatology that does not include a bodily return of Christ - not to Jehovah's witnesses. I looked for the verses about Jehovah's Witnesses when I was in college, but could not find any.  :)  But John's admonishment is that people who depart from a right view of Christ so zealously as to teach contrary to the gospel of salvation by Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone are void of God. John doesn't even want his audience (the elect lady and her children) to let these guys into their house.

So my logic is this: I hear John's pastoral voice warning me to protect the sheep (Remember that my 4 year old son thought the J-Dubbs were preaching the gospel to his mommy.) but I also hear Jesus' example of presenting himself to his enemies. I guess I balance it by bringing a hard gospel axe to the root of their deception as hard as I can swing. They aren't invited in, but I'll engage with them as far as they'll let me. I want Jesus to demonstrate his power to them and ultimately bring them to repentance and faith - but I also want my children to learn to identify false teachers and know that it is a no nonsense affair. I will warmly share the love of Christ with the broken-hearted - but I will also present Christ the stumbling block  to those who need their heart broken, first.

So tell us about a time the J-Dubbs visited your house. What do you think is the best policy for balancing gospel invitation with gospel warning?

Question

Here's a dilemma that i think Ole will understand, and a question to go with it. While the neo-Calvinism movement has brought with it a healthy desire for sound doctrine among SOME college students, i would still say that on the whole the theological accuity of college age people continues to decline. Now i believe in theological training for college age people, but the dilemma is this: Who do we teach and how do we teach them? We are debating on "dumbing down" some of our training so it is accessible to more students. I don't like catering to ignorance, but if training is above the heads of half the students recieving it, is it worthwhile? But if we dumb down teaching and training, it certianly won't be as challenging to our more astute friends. If this is a trend, how can we step in the gap and continue to be as helpful as possible? How do you do it in Duluth, my flannely friend?

New Season... New Episodes...

Sometimes bloggers have to put down their coffee, pull on some real-life pants, throw on some dark aviators, and brave the bright, shiny, real world for a few months. That pretty well explains where we've been here at Flannel Pilgrims - but we now return to our regularly scheduled program!

If you're just tuning in, allow me to bring you up to date:

We are a couple of Christian dudes who work on the University Campus with a para-church organization. This blog will cover a wide range of topics including but not limited to: Poking fun at Christian culture, church/para-church relationships, the gospel, ministry methodology, theology, the latest viral youtube video, facial hair, zombies, our faith heroes, conferences we attend, books we read, making fun of your denomination, making fun of our denomination (bet you can't guess it!), occasional devotional thoughts.

We love Jesus - we think He's in charge. We'll try to blog accordingly - we ask you to comment accordingly.
Thumbs up - Let's do this!

-The Flannel Pilgrims